Home Cinema (Projector) set-up for budget £8000 - any recommendations ?

[AndyBrad]

I have just had an extension completed, and need (well, would like) to set up a new home cinema. I am looking for :

Projector

Screen

Amp/Receiver

Speakers

I have a new Sony 790 Blu-ray player, and an older Monitor Audio RSW12 subwoofer that I might re-use.

The space available is about 5m x 4.3m (16ft x 14ft), with the projector firing across the shorter dimension. I am thinking 90-120 inch screen ?

Any recommendations in the £5000-8000 price bracket? It would be very useful to be pointed in the right direction before demo'ing a shortlist.

Many thanks

Andy

 

[simonlewis]

4K will be the big buzzword this year, it may be worth waiting a few months when manufactures bring out new equipment if thats your thing, although i'm not sure when new projectors are launched usually it's february, march,april and beyond for tv's.

 

[petehayman]

Hello Andy - just to let you know I've removed your duplicate post for you.

 

[Verity Burns]

Hi Andy,

There's a few things to consider here - we would suggest you consider upgrading your Blu-ray player for the standard of kit you'll be able to buy with £8000. The S790 is great, but something like the Marantz UD7007 would be far more suited to the setup we're going to suggest. You could sell off your sub to help towards this, as the speaker package we're suggesting from KEF includes a sub, which would integrate much better than your Monitor Audio one.

The kit we'd suggest is:

Projector - Panasonic PT-AT6000E, £3000

Amp - Pioneer SC-LX57, £900

Speakers - KEF R100 5.1, £2750

This gives you some breathing space in your budget to account for a screen and perhaps that Blu-ray player upgrade.

Hope that helps!

 

[bigboss]

Look at Sony and JVC projectors. If going for 4K, Sony is better as it's true 4K as opposed to JVC. I would suggest you keep your blu ray player and think of upgrading it once 4K blu ray players come in the market. For now, Sony S790 is more than capable of doing the job.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I have just had an extension completed, and need (well, would like) to set up a new home cinema. I am looking for :

Projector

Screen

Amp/Receiver

Speakers

I have a new Sony 790 Blu-ray player, and an older Monitor Audio RSW12 subwoofer that I might re-use.

The space available is about 5m x 4.3m (16ft x 14ft), with the projector firing across the shorter dimension. I am thinking 90-120 inch screen ?

Any recommendations in the £5000-8000 price bracket? It would be very useful to be pointed in the right direction before demo'ing a shortlist.

Many thanks

Andy

Although the big thing over the next year or so will be 4K, this won't be an issue as they're currently out of your budget. A genuine 4K projector will be just under £9,000 - this will no doubt fall over the next few years, but how fast is hard to predict. You can plan a move to 4K later by buying a budget projector to use for the time being. If you choose this route, spend as little as possible, as projectors tend to depreciate rapidly.

If you're not worried about 4K, then the Sony VPL-HW55ES seems to be the one that most people are going for at the moment. Its black level isn't quite as good as the JVCs, but it seems to produce a more natural looking picture. I would need to check how big a picture you will be able to produce from a distance of about 12ft (from the lens), but the Sony has a decent throw ratio, so you'll get a decent size out of it.

Is your room quite light? What colour are your walls, floor and ceiling? If they're all white (and not likely to change), you may need to look at a Draper React 2.1 screen to make the most of what the Sony has to offer - any white or near white surfaces will reflect light back to the screen and seriously affect the contrast ratio. If you have a room where all light can be shut out and you have no light reflective surfaces, you can go for a standard screen. The React will be more expensive (from around £1,500 upwards), but it will allow you to enjoy a picture in a light room that won't look all that different to a normal screen in a fully darkened room.

For speakers, the KEF R100 AV and the Sonus Faber Toy AV packages would be my current first choice in your budget. If you want something smaller and easily wall mountable, you could look at the B&W M1 or Monitor Audio Apex satellite speakers, but they'll not be in the same ballpark as the KEF or Sonus Faber ones for outright quality, particularly music.

Yamaha have always produced high quality AV receivers, and their current ones seem to be the receiver of choice. Get as good a one as you can for your budget - the speakers you go for will only sound as good as the amplification will let them. I'd recommend either the RXA2030 or RXA3030 for the above speaker packages. The Anthem AV receivers are also worth looking at if you have a troublesome room with regards to acoustics.

Your RSW12 will do the job fine, and will allow you to free up £700-1,000 of your budget with not having to replace it. I would concentrate on the parts that you need - the parts you have (sub and Bluray player) can be upgraded further down the line.